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After three years of intense focus on therapy and personal growth, I'm finally hitting the keys again and will be jumping into NaNoWriMo on November 1st, 2016. Stay tuned for updates!

Friday, 19 July 2013

9 Things I Learned About Having a Play Produced

Recently,
I had the privilege to work with some amazing artists on the production of Empty Boxes, a play I wrote back in
2006. This was the first time my solo
work was being produced and we were doing it completely on our own accord. Naturally, we had some major learning moments
presented to us along the way. In the
spirit of this blog, here are the things I learned working as a playwright:

1. BE ON THE SAME PAGE AS THE DIRECTOR

This is probably the most important of these
lessons. Before you start into the
process, you should sit down with your director and review the script and each
of your individual visions for the piece.
You absolutely have to be on the same page as your director from the
beginning; if not, you are begging for conflict later in the process. Make sure that you are clear about important
moments during these initial conversations (especially if those moments are
happening in stage directions). The
director may not stage them exactly as you had in your mind, but if they know
the meaning behind why you wrote it like that, they can stay true to the
essence of the action. This type of
understanding can only come out of in-depth discussions without the other
artists in the room. Having these
conversations early will also develop the relationship and dialogue for giving
notes about the piece during the rehearsal process.

2. FIGHT FOR YOUR WORK

“No one knows the script better than you” was advice I
received from Jason Sherman and through the process of Empty Boxes, I learned the truth of that statement. In my day job as a stage manager, it is a
cardinal sin to give your opinion about the direction of a piece (without being
asked directly by the director, and even then, you walk a fine line). Keeping my mouth shut during the rehearsal
process is a trait that in heavily engrained in my soul, so flipping over to
the side of the playwright, where my opinion not only expected, but necessary,
was difficult (to say the least). There
were times during the process that I didn’t fight as hard as I should have for
specific things that I wrote in, thinking that the director had his vision and
I should respect that. I didn’t want to
over step my bounds. But, the tricky
thing with a new work is that for the first time out, the audience is expecting
to see the playwright’s vision more than the director’s. They don’t know the show, so they think this
is what the playwright wrote; so as the playwright, if there is something that
doesn’t sit well with you , it is your job to stand up and say so. This doesn’t need to be a confrontation, but
you can explain why something is important to the arc of the story. Which brings me to...

3. TRUST YOUR GUT

Okay, not everything you put into the script is gold, but
there was likely a reason you put in the things you did (especially, if you
have workshopped it and done many edits – the stuff that’s left should be the
things you want to keep). Trust yourself. The production process of a new work needs to
be fluid and some things that weren’t originally in the script will develop organically
out of the rehearsal process, often these things turn out better than you
imagined, but if something is not sitting right, you need to trust what
yourself. Don’t allow things that you
know are important to be missed or skimmed over. If it is not working in rehearsal, you may
need to rewrite it, but you know the work better than anyone else. You’ve spent the most time with it. You’ve seen it through all its
incarnations. When people are watching
it, they will assume what they are seeing is what you intended, make sure it
says what you want it to say. There is a
great deal of compromise in any process (limits on stage space, budget, etc.),
you can compromise on how the story is told, but don’t compromise on the story
that you are telling. You know the
things that are important. Trust
yourself.

4. DON’T FEAR THE GARBAGE CAN (AKA ‘CUT THE VOMIT’)

Everyone wants their work to be wonderful and brilliant
the moment their words hit the page.
Even after countless drafts of Empty
Boxes, I still think when I sit down to write that the first go will be all
I need. WRONG! More often than not, most of what I first
produce ends up in the garbage can. Or,
it becomes the bones of a piece that grows immensely around it, to the point
where the original skeleton is no longer visible. During the first few reads of Empty Boxes, my red pen was my best
friend. It was funny to see the director
trying to delicately dance around telling me that a scene was terrible (I knew
that it was). More often than not, I
would say, ‘okay, it’s cut, I’ll be back with something new tomorrow’. Being able to say, ‘this sucks!’ is probably
one of the hardest things as a writer, but it is also freeing. Instead of beating your head against a wall
trying to make it better, it is so nice to just take it and throw it in the
garbage can or hit that DELETE key and start fresh. I can usually tell that my writing is bad (or
needs editing), if I’m reading or listening to it and I make a gagging
sound. That’s why I call it vomit because it usually makes me want
to throw up when I hear it (my work can lean towards the cheesy or overdramatic
in the first draft). If I hear something
that is vomit, it’s gone – immediately!
I like to compare this to sculpting:
you start with the uncut stone, you chisel out the basic form and as you
continue to work at it, you smooth out all the edges until you have a thing of
beauty, but sometimes you miss a couple spots, so you need to take out the
chisel again and work those areas until they are as smooth as the rest. It’s all just part of the process. When you see the garbage can as a place to discard
the debris from your masterpiece rather than a box containing all your
failures, it becomes this good friend that only serves to make your work
better.

5. STAGE DIRECTIONS ARE IMPORTANT – BE CLEAR

Once upon a time in theatre school, I had a professor
that told the class when looking at a play, it is not necessary to acknowledge
the stage directions and that many directors will cut them out of a script
without even reading them. Many people
from my class still adopt that as their philosophy today, and as a writer I
have always tried to limit my stage directions, thinking they weren’t really
necessary. Now, I want to shake that
professor and tell them never to say that ever again! If you are working on a
new play, the stage directions are the only communication the writer has to
give you a sense of how the play moves and what it would look like on its
feet. If you ignore them, you could be
missing something critical to the movement of the piece. Theatre has developed immensely since the
Greeks playing in the amphitheatres. Action
has a much stronger role; much of what used to be said in long monologues is
kept under the surface and told through movement on stage – the subtext. When writing your stage directions, be clear
as to what they are to accomplish. It is
not flowery prose, but they should give a clear idea of how the play
moves. They should inform the artists
about how the characters behave, their quirks and the environment that they are
in. Don’t neglect them. They paint the visual picture in the minds of
your artists.

6. DON’T SKIMP ON PRAISING THE GOOD THINGS OTHERS ARE
DOING

Putting up a show is a lot of work and it takes the
creative talents of a variety of skilled individuals. If you are lucky enough, you will assemble a
team of amazing artists who will dedicate themselves to your show like it is
their own (like I had the good fortune of working with on Empty Boxes). Don’t forget
that they need praise and encouragement for their contributions as much as you
do. Sometimes it is easy to get wrapped
up in what isn’t working or how something is straying from what you originally
envisioned that you fail to see the incredible work that is going on. Never let this happen (or if it does, ‘cause
it will, change your attitude immediately!)
If you are constantly critiquing and not praising, it makes it very
difficult for the artists involved to stay connected to your work. Everyone needs to feel like the effort they
are putting in is acknowledged. It’s not
all about you! Try to remember that
other people can care as much about your play as you do. You’re a team.

7. WRITE WITH YOUR AUDIENCE IN MIND

This is a tricky one.
Don’t misinterpret and think this means writing to please your audience:
it’s not. One of my favourite quotes
about being a writer is from Leo C. Rosten: “The
writer wants to be understood much more than he wants to be respected or
praised or even loved. And that perhaps,
is what makes him different from others.”
If the desire is to be understood, you need to keep in mind those who
are expected to do the understanding.
You are not writing for yourself; you are writing to have others see
something the way you do, to evoke a particular emotion or idea within them. While writing, it is important to keep this
audience in mind. Will they understand what
I’m trying to say? Am I being clear with
my intentions? Is this going to evoke
the response I want to evoke? If you are
only writing for your personal benefit, keep the thoughts as diary
entries. If the idea is to have your
work shared, you need to take an objective approach and consider whether it is
worth sharing. If not, make it so. No one wants to sit and feel alienated and
confused for 2 hours. That is not
spreading an idea or message. Even Brecht
gave us characters and stories that were clear and engaging (yes, alienating
and enraging, but you understood – he wrote for his audience).

8. LEARN FROM THE CRITICS

Don’t take every word to heart, but critics (good ones)
will offer an objective opinion of the work.
Unless you have a personal conflict with a particular person, a critic
would like to be entertained and say good things about a piece. Generally, people want things to succeed, so
even if you get a scathing review (and even if it seems like the person is just
looking for things to complain about), there is usually some truth to the
things they say. This does not mean you
should read every review and make changes based on all they say. Just read them objectively. What are they trying to say? Are there common comments among all your
reviews? When there are commonalities
amongst the reviews, those are likely flags for areas where you are not
communicating clearly with your audience.
As artists, writers are constantly growing and developing their
style. Having someone come out and look
at your work and give you feedback is a gift that you don’t always get. So don’t be dismissive of reviews, especially
the bad ones. Critics generally have a
great understanding of the art form you are communicating in and are in touch
with what is happening in that scene. By
analyzing what they say about you, you can learn and grow as an artist. But also, don’t let them discourage you, they
are the opinions of individuals.

9. TRUST YOUR AUDIENCE

Often as artists we put too much credit in the hands of
the critics (they do have the loudest voice) and not enough in the
audience. Many nights I would go down to
the theatre to meet people after the performance of Empty Boxes, so I was lucky enough to see the audience leaving the
theatre; many with tears in their eyes.
I had quite a few people add me on Facebook or ask for a copy of the
script because they connected so much with the piece. It was a real honour. Even though the reviews of the show were
mediocre, the actual audience response was overwhelmingly positive. So, as much as you need to be able to grow
and learn from the reviews, you also need to trust your audience if they say
the piece is worthwhile. After all, they
are the reason you are writing.

There are many more things that I learned about producing
and the entire production process, but as a writer, these were the main things
that I would keep in mind for the next go around. It’s taken me a while to process the entire
experience, but overall, I’m really pleased with the way it turned out and so
thankful to everyone who made it happen (including the wonderful people who
came out to support our work). If there
is one thing that I walk away from this realizing, it is a deepened
understanding of how much theatre is a shared experience and from a writing
perspective, how important clarity of thought at the start is to the final experience.

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Welcome to Art Thief!

After a few failed attempts at creating "themed story" blogs, I have been inspired to create a blog with the true intention of the format: a simple web log of my inspirations as a writer and artist.

This blog is dedicated to Austin Kleon, whose book Steal Like an Artist, has been my primary inspiration.

In this book, Kleon discusses how all art is stolen in some way and a good artist knows what is worth stealing. As artists, we cannot fool ourselves into thinking that everything we create is original. We all draw our inspiration from many sources and we steal little gems from each one to develop our own body of work. Kleon's book outlines simple practices to ensure that you keep your art alive; one being: SHARE YOUR WORK.

Thief Profile

Good thieves never reveal their identity... although, good thieves don't likely advertise their plunders to the rest of the world either.

Art Thief, aka AJ, keeps her home in Toronto, Canada; though work often pulls her to every corner of the globe.

AJ is a writer and teacher disguised as a mild mannered stage manager. She loves working in theatre and being able to surround herself with some of the best artists in the industry (while plotting to take over the world with her own work). As a stage manager, AJ is constantly immersed in all forms of art. Talk about inspiration overload! The number of stories and characters that fill each day is more than any writer could ask. The goal now: keep up!

AJ is working on a lot of projects in 2013, including: the first full length run of her play, Empty Boxes; and the launch of Homestead Theatre Project. Stay tuned in the Happenings section of this blog for details.